Sales & Marketing

Hollywood, Calif. – On Sept. 26, 2013, the board of directors of Frederick’s of Hollywood Group Inc. received a non-binding proposal letter from a consortium of HGI Funding LLC, TTG Apparel, LLC, Tokarz Investments, LLC, Fursa Alternative Strategies LLC, and Arsenal Group LLC to acquire all of the outstanding shares of its common stock.

Von Maur plans to open its 29th store at Riverchase Galleria Mall in Hoover, Ala., on Nov. 2. Located just outside of Birmingham, Ala., the three-level, 185,000-sq.-ft. store will be the company's first location in Alabama as well as one of the retailer’s largest stores in the country.

Cincinnati -- Macy’s, Inc. plans to hire seasonal associates for approximately 83,000 positions at its Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores, call centers, distribution centers and online fulfillment centers nationwide for the 2013 holiday season. The company’s 2013 seasonal hiring plan will bring on approximately 4% more temporary workers than the 80,000 holiday employees it hired in 2012.

GRAPEVINE, Texas — Multichannel video game retailer GameStop has announced plans to hire approximately 17,000 employees nationwide as the company prepares for the upcoming PlayStation 4 and Xbox One console launches, as well as the busy holiday shopping season.

Off-price retailers have traditionally stayed offline when it comes to conducting actual retail transactions. While most off-price retailers have long operated informational sites where customers can perform tasks such as locating nearby stores and checking prices, it has been very rare for retailers in this space to allow customers to buy goods via the Internet. Until now.

Leading outdoor brand Patagonia named former Nike, Coca-Cola and Johnson & Johnson marketing executive Joy Howard as its new VP of marketing.

Howard joined Patagonia’s marketing team effective September 23 and will lead the development and execution of global marketing across all sales channels and communication platforms for Patagonia, as well as for the wider portfolio of Patagonia initiatives in food and media, and new brand extensions.

Bentonville, Ark. -- Walmart announced that Kathleen McLaughlin, 48, has been named president of the Walmart Foundation, effective Oct. 15.

In addition to leading corporate giving, she will have responsibility for the company's global sustainability, women's economic empowerment initiatives and healthier food initiatives.

McLaughlin, previously a senior partner at global consulting firm McKinsey & Company, is a dual American-Canadian citizen and was based in Toronto.

Brooklyn, N.Y. -- Home furnishings retailer West Elm today announced its 2013 Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action with a purchasing plan of $35 million in handcrafted products through 2015, a 40% increase in spend during the next two years. West Elm, a member of the Williams-Sonoma, Inc. portfolio of brands, also pledged to make and source these products from businesses adhering to high social responsibility, health and safety standards, meeting local laws, best industry practices and the brand’s vendor code of conduct.